‘Technical outage’ knocks down Kitsap court system

The Kitsap County trial courts computer system, along with others in the state, has not been functioning since Nov. 4 and is expected to be out until Nov. 18..

The Daily Herald in Everett reports that the reason is a cyber-attack. On the Kitsap County clerk website page the reason is attributed to a “technical outage.”

The state Administrative Office of the Courts warned that it “recently identified unauthorized activity on the Washington Courts network.”

The outages also have affected courts in the counties of Thurston, King, Pierce, Whatcom and Lewis as well as municipal courts in several cities, such as Bainbridge Island, Renton, Monroe and Puyallup.

As a result, the Kitsap court, court administration and the clerk’s office do not have access to their case management system and is temporarily unable to provide public information related to calendars or individual Superior Court cases, the clerk’s site says.

The clerk’s announcement adds that the e-file portal called Odyssey has been temporarily disabled. If you previously filed something, and it has not been rejected and it will be accepted in the order received when the systems are back online, maintaining the date originally filed. It asks that people please file with the clerk’s office in person, by mail or fax.

“During this time, we will continue opening new cases and using a manual system for filing until the system is fully restored,” the clerk’s online message says.

Payments can still be made online or in person at the counter, where paper receipts will be issued.

“We have taken immediate action to secure critical systems and are working to safely restore service. Please be advised that there will be intermittent impacts to accessibility of our public website and systems in the coming days as we continue to restore services,” the AOC announcement says.

The BI website says: If you are scheduled for a municipal court proceeding, you should plan to attend unless notified otherwise. Counters remain open, but with limited services. Call ahead to confirm your needs can be met. There is no interruption to passport services. No online payments through PayGov are being accepted; contact the court for payment options.